As you probably know, baseball players get after it on the field and with their respective organizations from Spring Training in February/March all the way through August and into September (some even lucky enough to play in October). There’s a lot of fun times playing the game but once the time for the offseason comes, players are typically ready for a nice break.
During our 6 month offseason, players can be found doing all sorts of things: traveling, finishing up college degrees, part time jobs, and even playing winter ball. But way more often than not you will find the common theme of players training hard in the offseason in order to have their bodies ready to go for the long 6 month grind ahead of them.
The reason I capitalized the “OFF” in “offseason” in the title is because I truly believe there’s a need for this time of the year. I am not a big fan of the slogan: “There is no offseason” because, well yes, there actually is. It’s an awesome opportunity to get better both physically and mentally for six uninterrupted months.
It’s also great to take advantage of the time to spend with family and friends. Being away from them during the season can be tough especially if you’ve never spent that much time away from home. I’ve been lucky during my past two offseasons to spend time with family and friends as well as complete my college degree. Not many players within professional baseball can say that, so it is something I am definitely proud of.
As far as this offseason goes, I was really happy with my progress. I was fortunate enough to have been surrounded by some great people to train with during my time in St. Louis this winter and I really feel like I have made a lot strides with both my body as well as my swing. It was a goal of mine to really take time this offseason to study some of the best hitters in the world every day and try to incorporate and duplicate their movements into my own swing (see the article on Justin Turner for an idea).
My trainer, Jacob Buffa, has been awesome to work with; just like I enjoy studying the swing, Jacob enjoys studying movement and strength patterns that can help us as athletes on a daily basis. Our program was phenomenal and my body has been feeling fantastic the first few days of Spring Training.
Today we face live pitching for the first time so I finally get to put my feet back in the box and see a live arm in the beautiful Florida weather. The everyday grind for our hitters starts tomorrow and I can’t wait to share my ride throughout 2017.
J-Hawk
